Unlooked For
by konigen
Summary: Harry went to the pitch for some peace and quiet - what he got was so much better. AU Mid-Fourth Year
1. I Like The Way You Handle Your Broom

**Disclaimer:** The infamous JKR created Potterverse and all the characters we love (and hate). But if you look closely, you can see where I've started making a hole in her wards. A century or two from now, they'll be mine, all mine! Now I just need to make a horcrux so I'll still be around when they finally fall...

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><p>"You are very good at zat," the words came from behind and above him, and Harry nearly fell off his broom in surprise.<p>

"Don't do that," he snapped without thinking, turning in a tight half circle and angling a little up so he could see who had spoken.

His companion grinned. _Oh_.

"Er," Harry started, trying to figure out how to apologizing without actually, well, apologizing, but Krum just grinned.

"I should haff known better. After all, someone is tryink to kill you. My apologizes for not takink it into account," Krum said, waving absently.

"What?" Harry said, blankly. "You believe me?"

"I see the way that you wince when that woman," the last word is said nastily, a sneer twisting Krum's lips, "interviewed you. Not actions of…attention seeking?"

"Attention seeker," Harry corrected without thinking, and Krum nodded in thanks.

"Not actions of attention seeker. Since you did not enter, why else but in attempt to kill you would you be entered?"

"Thanks," Harry said, cautiously. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, Krum."

"Call me Viktor," Krum – Viktor requested.

"Viktor then," Harry said, drifting lazily up so they hovered evenly, only a few feet between them.

"The Potter line is well known for the skill of brooms. Flight," he corrected himself.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked curiously, having never thought about his talent on a broom much at all. It was just something he _did_.

"It is talent. In the blood," Viktor explained.

"Like parseltongue?" Harry asked without thinking, his ability to talk to snakes the only blood based talent he knew of. He winced as soon as the words left his mouth, anticipating and hating the reaction the mention of it always garnered.

"Da," Viktor said in agreement, and Harry smiled warmly at him without thinking about it. Viktor grinning back at him, and it lit something warm in Harry's chest.

"So what are you doing out here anyway? Not that I think you were following me or anything, or that you can't use the Pitch whenever," Harry babbled, wincing internally. He always made a mess of things.

"I vas following you," Viktor said easily, and Harry drifted closer without meaning to. He looked down in embarrassment and because of that missed the pleased look on Viktor's face.

"Uh, ok. Um," Harry chanced a glance up to see Viktor still smiling at him, "why?"

"I vanted to ask you to the Yule Ball," Viktor said, smiling wider when Harry's head shot up in surprise.

"People will talk," was the first thing that Harry could think to say. He realized, belatedly, that it was a yes without him even to think about it.

"I vill tell dem I like the way you handle your broom," Viktor said with a wry grin, and Harry grinned back. "Dey will spend the entire time trying to figure out what I mean by it and gossiping about corruption and me takink advantage of you."

Harry thought about it and an expression that would have terrified even Rita graced his face. Maybe this tournament wasn't such a bad thing after all. After all, thanks to Viktor, it was now a perfect opportunity to get some of his own back.


	2. Corruption

Harry managed to avoid most of the crush and panic leading up to the Yule Ball by hiding in the library, claiming to be working on his clue. That it was true didn't really seem to count for anything, so he took to avoiding Hermione and Ron even when he was in class. He didn't bother with the stuff normally available to students – Professor Moody had asked him to stay after class the other day and then handed him a pass for the Restricted Section. It was kind of creepy, actually – usually the Defense professors tried to kill him. With Harry's luck, Moody would end up turning out to be a homicidal maniac in disguise.

Madam Pince hadn't wanted to let him at the books but she hadn't had any choice – the spells she used to detect forgeries all came back negative. After spending a horrified minute or three looking at the number of books he needed to go through, he used a bastardized version of the Point Me charm (Point Me book on strange screeching languages returned as a surprisingly number of titles if the crazy spinning of his wand was anything to go by) and then had to walk up and down every isle, stopping at each place his wand pointed straight at a title. It took nearly an hour for his wand to stop returning anything but the titles in his hand. It took another two hours to put even a dent in his stack, and by then he had ruled out Trollish, Gobbledegook, the Harpy tongue (which didn't actually have a name), Siren Song, and Manticore Screeching. He was almost about to put them back and head down to dinner when he hit the jackpot.

Each book on the various languages was imbued with a spell that, when you tapped the rune anchoring it with your wand, would play you a sample conversation. He had no sooner tapped the 'water' rune in the middle of the page on Myrfolk when the horrible screeching he'd only ever heard from that damn egg played, but softly enough that he didn't feel like his ears were bleeding. He quickly tapped the rune a second time and read the passage about the various Myrfolk clans, pay particular attention to the fact that there was a _very_ sizeable clan in the Black Lake at Hogwarts.

Snapping the book shut and shoving it away from him, he rested his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands, thinking. He _could_ go back to his dorm and grab the egg and find a place to listen to it underwater, but that would mean braving Hermione, Ron, Colin, Dennis, _and_ the Weasley Twins, which was something he wanted to put off as long as possible. Nodding to himself, he grabbed the books and returned them to their proper places before going to see Madam Pince.

"I was wondering if you could help me?" Harry asked nervously. He flinched when Madam Pince glared at him before motioning him to go on.

"I was wondering if there was a charm to help someone find books on a particular subject?" She continued to glare, but Harry kept on. "It's just that I tried to use Point Me and it took a really long time to find all the things I asked it to point at."

She looked a little surprised, and Harry couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing, because she was still glaring and her lips were still pinched. But she nodded at him and came out from behind her desk, and he sighed with relief. Following her into the Restricted Section, he drew his wand when she did, listening attentively when she started to speak.

"You weren't actually far off with the Point Me," she said sourly. "The charm you want is Find Me, and instead of causing your wand to point in the right direction, it will cause the books to glow. Only you will be able to see it, so I won't bother to demonstrate the actual charm. Just use this wand motion when you cast."

The wand motion was a circle that started on the left and continued around until the circle was completed. Harry practiced it a few times until Madam Pince nodded her approval, then cast the charm.

"Find Me underwater survival," he said, twirling his wand. He grinned when he saw several books light up. "Thank you."

Madam Pince just nodded before turning around and heading back to her desk to terrorize more students. Harry was just glad it wasn't him. He grabbed the five books lit up by the spell's glow and carried them back to his table. He started with _Underwater Spell Techniques (Know How Your Spells Will React Underwater)_ by Tilda Kirker, finding quite a few tips on how to predict how spells would react, and how you only needed to think the words to cast in water. It also listed casting spells underwater as a good way to build up your proficiency at wordless casting. The next book was useless – _Know Your Water_ by Foren Riven was all about the different compositions of water and how they affected weather, potions, and (of all things) eye color. The third book (_Deep Thinking_ by Ula Wentern) was actually a tale about a Sea Serpent, but just as Harry was about to shove it away in disgust, he noticed the word _parseltongue_.

'_Parseltongue is a rare and little known gift – there are only a double handful of documented parselmouths, and we have only barely scratched the surface at what they can do when casting magic in the language of snakes. One of the more interesting things we do know, on the other hand, is that parselmouths are able to take on aspects of snakes, allowing them to survive in environments unsuited to humans. There are snakes that can withstand high temperatures, breathe underwater, breathe poisoned air, and many more things, and with a simple application of parselmagic they can take on these aspects at will.'_

Harry stared at the passage blankly before reading it again. The words didn't change.

He hastily flipped through the book until he came upon a picture of a strange tablet filled with twisting symbols. The text underneath read 'the only known guide to parselmagic – found 378 in Rome'. When he looked at the picture again, the symbols had stopped twisting and looked like the rest of the book.

_:Parselmagic is the easiest magic to use – you simply imbue the words you speak with your magic, and it will be as if you cast a spell.:_

It was short for all that the tablet was covered in writing, but from what he could tell parselwriting was built phonetically, which was interesting and probably very confusing for any non-speaker trying to translate it. He chuckled under his breath at the thought.

Well, that was definitely sorted then. He sighed in disappointment. It was still two weeks until the Yule Ball, and he _really_ didn't want to deal with everyone's panic and excitement over the damn thing for that long. But it looked like he didn't really have a choice. It wasn't like he could actually practice parselmagic on school grounds - Dumbledore was sure to get wind of it and then Harry would have to sit in his office while Dumbledore sighed and looked disappointed and made cryptic comments. He had enough to deal with.

He managed to work on his homework in peace for a whole five minutes before the inhabitants of the common room noticed him. Or, the female inhabitants did. The whispering immediately picked up as they pointed discretely (but not very) at him and hissed at each other from behind their hands. Apparently they were trying to figure out if he had asked anyone yet, judging by the way everyone kept shaking their heads.

Ron and Hermione dropped in beside him on the couch, and he breathed a small sigh of relief. Even if they weren't getting along perfectly, he knew that they would watch his back.

"Well, mate, looks like the birds have noticed you don't have a date," Ron said sagely, giving a nod to the room. Harry sighed again and slumped a little further into the cushions.

"Have you given any thought to who you're going to take, Harry?" Hermione asked, trying and failing not to sound bossy. "It's very important you know. Tradition states-"

"I have a date."

He said it loud enough that the whispering stopped in response. Ron and Hermione gaped at him.

"Who is the lucky girl, mate?" Ron asked, leaning forward eagerly. Hermione huffed at him but looked just as interested.

Harry smiled and shook his head before turning back to his essay.

"You're not going to tell us?"

"Nope. You can find out with the rest of the school."

"But we're your best mates!"

"And the look on your faces are going to be _hilarious_," Harry said, feeling impish. For some reason, he couldn't wait.


	3. Taking Advantage

**Disclaimer: If I owned _Harry Potter_ and all associated titles, Voldemort would still look like Christian Coulson (who played Tom Riddle in Chamber of Secrets) and Harry would have joined the Dark Order, breaking the prophecy and enabling them to take over the world and rule everything with an iron fist.**

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><p>Despite the begging, pleading, demanding, and (on one occasion) threats, Harry refused to part with the name of his date. Ron was sulking (again) and Hermione had taken to just looking at him and <em>huffing<em>. He took great pleasure in informing them that they looked ridiculous, respectively.

Despite his fears, the remaining time to the Yule Ball seemed to fly by – he had managed to get all his school work done in peace ever since his assurance that yes, he did have a date, and had even managed to sneak into the Prefect's Bathroom to get a translation of the damn clue. He had no idea what was going to end up at the bottom of the lake, but he _did_ know that if he ended up down there and his picture album was down there he was going to go spare.

He'd cast his first parsel spells successfully, too, late one night after everyone else was asleep. He still wasn't sure how parselmagic worked exactly, so instead of trying to cast a locking spell on his trunk he'd used 'bind' and it had worked beautifully. Granted, it'd taken him nearly an hour after that to figure out how to get his trunk _open_ again, but it had been worth it. There was no way the lake would be a problem after a simple application of 'air in water' and 'scales', both of which he had tried in the showers. He wasn't too keen on how he _looked_ covered in scales, but he did have to admit they were a very pretty green.

If his teachers (namely McGonagall and Snape) were surprised by his dedication to the coursework even in the face of the impending ball, they didn't say anything, although, surprisingly enough, the other day Snape had seen his nearly perfect warming draught and _hadn't_ had anything bad to say about it, despite the fact that it was purple instead of an off-color blue. It seemed that instead of the tourney making his year worse, it had caused it to take a turn for the better. Plus, getting to skip the end of the year exams was a great boon, considering he still had to survive two more tasks with at least one judge and one nameless specter out to get him.

They were given the day off the day of the Ball, supposedly so they all had 'time to get ready'. Harry had no idea what that meant – how hard was it to wash your face, brush your teeth, comb your hair, and put on your dress robes? But what did he know, he was only fourteen, right? The Headmaster wouldn't have done it if there wasn't a good reason.

(There wasn't actually a good reason. McGonagall had had fits when she found out that Dumbledore was giving them the day off. The ball wasn't until nine and classes wrapped up at about four that day, so it wouldn't have been like the students didn't have time to prepare properly. When she confronted him about it, all he did was hem and haw and mention giving them a chance to get in the right mindset. McGonagall remarked tartly that if they got any _more_ excited, the castle would explode but left it alone beyond that because there wasn't really anything she could do. Harry didn't know any of that though.)

The robes that Mrs. Weasley had bought for him fit him well, and it didn't take him long to get ready. Turning to head out, he bumped into Neville, who was dressed in a smart set of rust red dress robes. What he assumed was the Longbottom crest was stitched to the left breast and the back. Harry had never seen it before, or really any family crest for that matter, and it was surprisingly pretty. Two swords crossed over the bottom of a shield, which was drawn into quarters. A sun, a bear's paw, a mortar and pestle, and an axe sat inside the shield, overlapping each other near the center. The squares were golden brown and green, the shield gold, and the top of the shield had a stylized tree growing out of it, which was dark brown and green.

"You look nice, Neville," Harry said, surprised. He'd never seen Neville in anything but the school uniform, and since everyone was dressed the same, the eye tended to pass over it, at least beyond noticing the house crest.

"So do you," Neville said back, smiling softly. Harry grinned at him. "Are you color coordinating with your date, Harry?"

Harry shook his head. "Don't think so. He didn't mention it, anyway."

Neville sighed. "Lucky. Ginny insisted. She's in some sort of blue…thing. I think it's a dress, but I'm not sure, she wouldn't let me see it."

Harry chuckled and clapped Neville on the back. "Chin up, mate."

Neville nodded back at him. "Good luck tonight, Harry. Hope your date is up to handling the harpies."

Harry was confused for a moment or two before realizing that Neville meant all the girls that had been giving him looks, then nearly choked on laughter.

"He is," Harry said, grinning at Neville again.

"He who, what?" Ron demanded, half buried in the towel he was using to dry his hair as he stumbled out of the shower.

"Snape. He's supervising," Neville said quickly, winking at Harry and moving aside to that Harry could make a break for it. Harry mouthed a thank you at him as he bolted, just as Ron shouted a 'WHAT?!' in disbelief.

He had no idea why he wasn't better friends with Neville. He'd have to fix that.

The stairways were deserted and Harry made good time to the Great Hall, but he didn't manage to beat Viktor there. He was leaning against the wall near the doors to the courtyard which was working to keep his gaggle of fans away from him, although they weren't very numerous at the moment. Harry made his way over to him without much trouble, smiling at Viktor the entire way, who smiled back.

"You look beautiful," Viktor said, accent as thick as ever, reaching out to tug one of the locks of hair that covered Harry's scar. Harry blushed.

"Boys aren't pretty," he protested, but his blush ruined it a bit.

"Some are," Viktor countered, eyes sweeping over the growing crowd, which was starting to pay attention to them. "You are one of them."

"How would you like it if I called _you_ pretty," Harry asked, rubbing one cheek with the back of a hand in an attempt to get the blush to fade.

Viktor's smile turned soft. "You can if you like, Harry. I vould not mind."

Harry's blush returned with a vengeance. "You look handsome."

"That vun works too."

The whispers had started up now, now that it was obvious that Harry hadn't just gone over to Viktor to say hello. It was five minutes to nine, and everyone was standing with their date, more or less. Ron and Hermione were still missing, as was Draco, but Neville was there. Neville had stared at Harry and Viktor for several long seconds before slowly smiling and shaking his head. Ginny had a dazed expression on her face still.

Ron came rushing down the stairs to take up residence next to one of the Patil twins (Harry really had no idea which one – they were dressed exactly the same and he wasn't even sure which one Ron had asked out in the first place. Then again, he was standing next to Padma and Parvati, maybe he had asked them _both_) and the moment he noticed Harry standing next to Viktor blushing he'd started gaping like a fish and hadn't stopped, which caused him to miss Hermione's entrance. Ron didn't miss the fact that she took Theodore Nott's arm though, which stole his attention completely away from Harry. Despite the fact that Harry was glad that Ron wasn't staring him anymore, he wasn't sure it was a good thing.

Hermione had turned a furious red when she saw him and Viktor and Harry couldn't help but laugh at it. She glared at him for a few seconds before smiling ruefully and heading their way, Nott in tow.

"I can't _believe_ you," Hermione complained when she was within speaking distance, her tone playful. "How could you keep this sort of thing from me, Harry?"

"Well…" Harry trailed off, then grinned impishly. "The expression on your face was _hilarious_."

Hermione huffed at him again, which caused Nott to roll his eyes behind her back.

"Can you really blame him, Hermione?" Nott asked, and to Harry's surprise she shook her head and sighed.

"I guess I can't. But don't make it a habit to keep things like this from me, Harry," Hermione warned. "Do you have any idea how much gossip I could have traded that for?"

"And yet you wondered why he wasn't here with a girl," Nott grumbled, grinning when Hermione mock hit him.

"Well I know why you're here with him at least," Harry remarked. "He can keep up with you."

It was Hermione's turn to blush.

"Champions, in the front please," McGonagall called, grabbing their attention.

Harry and Viktor slipped in behind Cedric and Cho, leaving Fleur and…Oliver Wood? When did _that_ happen? to take the lead. Everyone was staring at them now, Professor McGonagall included, which would have made Harry uncomfortable but Viktor was holding his head high and had wrapped an arm around Harry's waist, and he was too busy blushing to give it much thought.

'Why in Merlin's name do I keep doing that?' Harry thought to himself in despair. Before tonight, he could have counted on one hand the number of times he had blushed, and now he was running out of _toes_.

"Yes, well. The Champions will lead into the Great Hall, opening the Yule Ball with the traditional first dance. Please proceed in an orderly fashion."

Hot breath brushed Harry's ear as Viktor whispered to him. "So, you did not tell anyone you were going with me?"

"I wanted to see their faces," Harry confessed, voice just as soft. He could feel Viktor's grin against his hair and he was almost entirely certain that Viktor had brushed his lips against the side of his head in a sort of kiss before he pulled away.

The reaction from the staff table was even better than he had predicted, with Dumbledore and Karkaroff staring blankly at them both. They had to be shaken out of it, literally, by Hagrid.

A traditional march started up, and Harry took Viktor's offered hand, putting his other on Viktor's shoulder as Viktor wrapped his other hand around Harry's hip. Harry could hear snatches of conversation as they twirled around the dance floor.

"…so much older than him, what is he…"

"…can't trust men like that, why didn't any warn the boy…"

"…study dark arts in that school, what if he…"

Viktor smirked. "I told you, did I not? Corruption and taking advantage."

"And wondering what you see in me," Harry agreed.

"Bah, I wonder how they did not see what I see. _My_ advantage that they did not."

"Ya," Harry agreed, leaning into Viktor as Viktor lead him around the dance floor.

This year was _really_ looking up.

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><p><em><strong>THE END<strong>_

_Yes, really the end. I'm not doing anything else with this. Originally, it was a one shot, but I was convinced to write a bit more but even then I only planned to go to the Ball. If you want to adopt it, rewrite it, continue it, whatever. Go for it. Just credit me for the idea.  
><em>


End file.
